Usain Bolt must have a bad hamstring, which
would explain why the dazzling sprinter who set three world records while
electrifying crowds at the Beijing Olympics lost twice to compatriot Yohan
Blake at the recent Jamaican Olympic trials. It also would explain why Bolt,
who previously hadn't lost a 200-meter race other than a qualifying heat since
2007, afterward visited his longtime sports doctor in Germany for treatment and
then withdrew from the final London Olympics tuneup meet last week in Monaco.
No, the problem must be that Bolt's back is
acting up again. The evidence offered by breathless British press reports: Bolt
asked for a 7-foot-long, customized and orthopedically friendly mattress to be
delivered to his room at the Jamaican team's pre-Olympic training headquarters
in Birmingham, England, the better to cradle his lanky, 6-foot-5 frame and ease
his chronic back problems.
The real reason for Bolt's defeats probably
combines the discomfort of a balky hamstring, the woes generated by a
congenitally curved spine and the emergence of training partner Blake as a new
and younger rival to his supremacy in perfect time for a memorable showdown at
the London Summer Games.
But don't write Bolt off just yet.
"Every time he has been severely
challenged and it looks like he maybe has a chink in the armor he has bounced
back pretty strong," said Ato Boldon, a four-time Olympic sprint medalist
and four-time world championship medalist for Trinidad and Tobago who will
analyze track events during NBC's Olympic coverage.
"I am not one of those who think he is
automatically going to lose in London. But for the first time he is not the
favorite in the 100."
With Bolt and his teammates sequestered at
the Jamaicans' practice facility, no reliable reports about Bolt's fitness have
surfaced. That has left fans of the sport to wonder if the charismatic sprinter
whose playful personality is reflected in his trademark "Lightning
Bolt" post-victory pose — right arm drawn back at shoulder height, left
arm extended with his left index finger pointing toward the heavens — has lost
some of his thunder to Blake.
Bolt might provide some illumination
Thursday, when the Jamaican team is scheduled to participate in a pre-Olympic
news conference in London. Bolt's agent, Ricky Simms, told reporters two weeks
ago the hamstring tightness Bolt had felt during the Jamaican meet had vanished
and that Bolt was "back to normal . . . good to go."
For the 25-year-old Bolt, "good to
go" usually means stunning performances like his world-record 9.69-second
clocking in the 100 at the Beijing Olympics and a relaxed approach. His
pre-race meal was chicken nuggets, a nutritionist's nightmare but, at least for
him, the dinner of champions. He lowered his record to 9.58 a year later in
Berlin at the world championships and followed that four days later by breaking
Michael Johnson's revered world record in the 200 with a blazing time of 19.19
seconds, all the while winning fans with his down-to-earth demeanor.
Only his high-speed driving antics, which
have led to several car accidents, stand between him and utter adoration within
his country and among fans around the world. A sport plagued by years of doping
scandals and administrative bumbling couldn't hope for a more magnetic athlete
to help repair its image while competing in the signature event for the title
of world's fastest man.
"He's the best thing to happen to
track and field in my lifetime," Boldon said. "I think he has that
ability to take the sport into a place where, coming back off the Marion Jones
stuff and the Tim Montgomery stuff and the BALCO stuff, he really has been a
breath of fresh air for the sport.
"His personality is just a complement
to his ability. His performances get your attention. His personality is what
has kept the attention of the entire planet for the last four years."
But Bolt's results at the Jamaican trials
gained attention for the wrong reasons.
Blake, who won the 100-meter world title
last year after Bolt was charged with a false start and disqualified, beat a
slow-starting Bolt with a personal-best 9.75 seconds in the 100 final. Two days
later Blake, 22 and a contrast to Bolt at a stocky and powerful 5 feet 11 and
175 pounds, capitalized on another bad start by his rival to win the 200 in 19.80.
Bolt was second at 19.83.
At a meet last week in Lucerne,
Switzerland, Blake overcame his own slow start to win the 100 in 9.85. Only
Blake, Bolt and American sprinter Justin Gatlin have run faster this year.
"I didn't come here to run a quick time, but it's still a fast time. Not
many guys run 9.85," Blake told reporters.
Bolt has three faster times this season,
but his losses to Blake at the Jamaican trials stand out as the Olympics
approach. Boldon said Bolt's poor starts in the trials shouldn't be seen as the
start of a bad trend.
"Bolt knows very well he cannot go to
the Olympics and start like that. If he starts like that in the Olympic final,
he loses. He may not even get second," Boldon said. "But the thing
is, in his championships history, he does not start bad at championships, the
false start last year notwithstanding.
"I don't know how he does it, but he
always seems to figure it out by then. He can be starting poorly the entire
year, like he was in 2011, and somehow he finds a way to figure it out for the
championships."
Boldon said he considers Tyson Gay, the
American-record holder in the 100, "extremely dangerous . . . sort of the
overlooked guy," and capable of beating Bolt at that distance.
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